Category: writing

Research Notes – The Great War (19) Isaac Rosenberg, War Poet

~ Meg ~ 39 Comments

Isaac Rosenberg was one of six children born to Russian Jewish immigrants in London in November of 1890. He is known as an English poet, a Jewish poet, a war poet and a poet-painter. His career was cut short by The Great War and his body of work is thus thin. Many scholars believe the work he left behind was flawed but showed great promise had he been able to continue. Rosenberg fought in the war and was killed on April 1, 1918 in the Battle of Arras. His final poems written during his time in the fields of France have shown the potential for greatness which he was never able to fully realize.

“The tragedy of war gave [his] affinities full expression in his later poems, and as war became the universe of his poetry, the power of his Jewish roots and the classical themes became the sources of his moral vision as well as his poetic achievement.” – Thomas Staley, Dictionary of Literary Biography. Here is his poem: Break of Day In the Trenches:

Break Of Day In the Trenches

The darkness crumbles away–
It is the same old druid Time as ever.
Only a live thing leaps my hand–
A queer sardonic rat–
As I pull the parapet’s poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German–
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver– what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop, and we are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe,
Just a little white with dust.

Header image: Self portrait 1915, Isaac Rosenberg

Inhuman (9)

~ Meg ~ 11 Comments

To read from the beginning: parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.

Nathan smiled. “Good, thank you,” he whispered. Then louder he said, “Amanda, I promise you will be well cared for, your job will be interesting and fulfilling and best of all, you will be doing a service to your country. Of course, we understand this is a lot to digest all at once. You don’t have to agree to all of this right away. Take some time. Unfortunately, while you’re thinking it over, you’ll have to remain here.”

“I can’t just drop out of sight,” she protested. “I have work, what if one of my friends calls… or my mom or sisters? And where is my phone anyway?”

“Your phone and your handbag are safe. We will give you access to your phone, with obvious limitations. You will be allowed to call in sick to work. Tell them you have the flu —something that will keep you away for a few days. As for friends and family, you can tell them the same thing, unless of course, they would be inclined to come and help.”

Amanda smirked. “No, as long as they thought Brian was around to care for me, they’d keep their distance.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. The flu it is. We can provide a doctor’s authorization, if you need one. It will give you a few days to come to terms with the situation. And for us to give you a more thorough explanation of what we do here. Are we agreed, then?”

Amanda shivered involuntarily. If she wanted to stay alive, give herself a chance to get out of this mess, she had to play along. She wondered again whether she could really trust Nathan. The doctor seemed to trust him, at least. The idea of having to put her faith in the creator of super intelligent androids and a government agent, both of whom she’d known for less than a span of a day was absolutely ridiculous, but at this point, she saw no other way forward. For the moment, or until some other option presented itself, she would agree. Slowly, she nodded. “I guess that is my only choice, isn’t it? Very well, I will agree. At least until I have a better understanding of what this agency is involved in.”

Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. “Excellent.” Then he addressed Dr. Knight. “Now the question remains, Leo, will you tell us what we need to know so that we can bring the other AI’s in? For their own good, Leo. For their own good.”

The doctor rubbed his hands over his face. “Is there no way to allow them to live? If I agree to build and program new androids with a modified military program, one less human, is there any way to save the remaining two?”

“I don’t know, Leo, but I doubt it. The director isn’t going to like the idea of a pair of androids assimilating into society. The risk of discovery would still be too great, even if you managed to fix the glitch in the sleep cycle.”

“What if the AI’s knew that they weren’t human?” he suggested. “They could at least take precautions then.”

“It might be too late for that,” Nathan said. “I’m sure by now they’ve formed friendships, maybe even fallen in love and married, like Brian did. That would mean they’d either have to abandon those people or those people would have to be taken into our confidence the way we’re doing with Amanda. Do you really think the director is going to widen the circle of people who know the truth?”

Dr. Knight sighed heavily. “No, I suppose not. But could we at least find out? See what their lives have become before we rip them away from them?”

“Does that mean you agree to help us find them?”

“On that one condition, Nathan. That we be allowed to see what kind of lives they’ve made for themselves and if it is at all possible, we try to preserve that life for them. In return, I will start working on new androids with an altered program for military use. Tell the director he will get his weapons.”

The Writers Tag

~ Meg ~ 13 Comments

I’ve been tagged by fellow author, GJ Stevens, to participate in a tag for writers to get to know one another. GJ is releasing his first novel this month so be sure to visit his blog and read all about it. The tag was created by Lorraine Ambers and Ari Meghlen for writers to connect with one another and help expand this lovely writing community. We are asked 12 questions and encouraged to tag other writers. As always, no obligation on any of my nominees. Here are my answers and my nominees:

Name one novel that inspired you to write. 

I can’t say there is one novel which inspired me to write, but there are quite a few novels that I would aspire to write. My current work in progress is historical fiction set partly in the time of World War I and partly in modern day. An author who manages to slip seamlessly between time periods in her books in Kate Morton, so I will choose her novel The Forgotten Garden as a book that inspires me.

What’s your favorite genre to read and to write?

I read avidly and across many genres. I’m writing historical fiction AND science fiction at the moment, but I suppose the genre I find myself reading most frequently are mysteries/detective stories. And as a result, four of my five published novels are mysteries.

Do you prefer to write stand alone or series?

Thus far, my published novels are a series. The Bucks County Novels are romantic suspense stories set in the region of Pennsylvania where I live. These five books have repeating characters but each plot focuses on a different one. It was a great deal of fun to include local restaurants, bars and other businesses in the books as well as being able to send the characters to the city of Philadelphia which is only about an hour away. I am not entirely sure whether I will continue the series because of the other projects I have going, but I won’t rule it out.

Use three words to describe yourself:

Curious. Adventurous. Distracted.

Reveal your WIP aesthetics or an image that represents your main character or setting.

This a a collection of art and photography (some of it my own) that represents the historical novel I’m working on.

Bedford House Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium
The Wounded Man, Otto Dix
Paschendaele, Belgium
Shock Troops Advance Under Gas, Otto Dix
Poppies In No Man’s Land, Meg Sorick
Paschendaele, Meg Sorick

How long did your first manuscript take you to draft?

I worked relentlessly on my first novel. I think I finished it in about six months. However, the first draft was only one of many versions of that novel. I revised it again last year and republished it as a second edition. AND it totally paid off – Three Empty Frames won the Writers Digest first place award for mainstream fiction in 2017.

Who is your author idol?

It’s a tie between Jonathan Kellerman and John Grisham. Both these writers have been writing for decades and their books are consistently good. That’s not to say that having just one good novel in you is a bad thing, but I’d love to have a lengthy novel writing career like these two guys.

Share a writing memory that made you determined to carry on.

Getting positive feedback from an independent source is definitely a strong motivator. Your parents or your spouse are pretty likely to be biased in their support for you, but when a total stranger loves your work, that is really validating.

Tell us something surprising or unique about yourself.

Tough question. Despite being friendly and rather outgoing on my blog, I really am a pretty private person. I keep a lot of things locked tightly inside my head.

Share the hardest part about being a writer and how you overcame it.

I think this is something many writers can relate to: having people ‘read into’ what you are writing. In other words, people thinking maybe you based a character on them, or a scenario you’ve written hits a little close to the truth and they assume you (the writer) feel the same way the character does. Borrowing from real life to write fiction is not a direct progression but sometimes it isn’t easy to convince the people who read it. How to overcome it? Add a disclaimer and remind everyone that an author can write about serial killers without having a basement full of bodies!

What’s your favorite social media and why? Share your link.

Not a huge fan. Social media is, however, a necessary evil for authors hoping to get noticed. I have a Facebook Author Page, a LinkedIn account and a Google+ account —all of which I have linked to my blog but mostly ignore. I have a private Instagram and I mostly ignore that too, at least for sharing my own stuff. Do you really want to see what I had for dinner? But it is a nice way to keep in touch with friends who are far away.

Share some uplifting wisdom in six words or less.

Carry a notebook, inspiration is sneaky.

I nominate the following writers:

I understand that we’re all busy with writing and probably with a day job too, so if this is extra task is too much, I completely understand! But if you can, I’d love to hear your answers to the questions.

Sandra – What Sandra Thinks

Darnell Cureton

Rebecca Moon Ruark  – Rustbeltgirl

Tom Austin – abitsa

Andrick Schall

Instructions:

 Post the Tag and Image (see above) on your blog.

 Thank whoever nominated you and give a link back to their blog.

 Mention the creators of the tag and link back to their blogs.

 Answer the 12 questions.

 Nominate 6+ bloggers and notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs. (Optional!)